Changing Gears - Patent And PCBs
idbruce
Posts: 6,197
Hello Everyone
While awaiting an answer pertaining to my patent. I have been doing alot of research and thinking, especially concerning my PCB (Printed Circuit Board) making process. As it stands now, there are two current problems with my process, one I hate to manually drill holes, and the other is creating plate through holes, from the top layer to the bottom layer. I have no doubt that I will be able to create plated through holes, but I have decided not to focus on this problem until the sale of my patent is resolved.
In the meantime, I have decided to rearrange my exposure procedure and gear up for doing single-sided, small, protoboards. I am not talking anything fancy here, I am just talking about copper traces placed on the opposing side of the components, which may or may not require jumpers from Point A to Point B, and may or may not include tin plating, but it will certainly not include the drilling of holes, soldermask, or silkscreen. Additionally, I am thinking of several standard size protoboards, with increments of a 1/2 inch, having a maximum size of 3 inch by 4 inch.
So my question is this:
Bruce
While awaiting an answer pertaining to my patent. I have been doing alot of research and thinking, especially concerning my PCB (Printed Circuit Board) making process. As it stands now, there are two current problems with my process, one I hate to manually drill holes, and the other is creating plate through holes, from the top layer to the bottom layer. I have no doubt that I will be able to create plated through holes, but I have decided not to focus on this problem until the sale of my patent is resolved.
In the meantime, I have decided to rearrange my exposure procedure and gear up for doing single-sided, small, protoboards. I am not talking anything fancy here, I am just talking about copper traces placed on the opposing side of the components, which may or may not require jumpers from Point A to Point B, and may or may not include tin plating, but it will certainly not include the drilling of holes, soldermask, or silkscreen. Additionally, I am thinking of several standard size protoboards, with increments of a 1/2 inch, having a maximum size of 3 inch by 4 inch.
So my question is this:
For one of a kind, single-sided and tin plated protoboards, having dimensions 3 inch by 4 inch or less, would you be willing to pay $10 to $20 for such a board, if you had to drill your own holes?
If there is any interest, I would seriously consider providing this service.Bruce
Comments
I think that's a tough sell compared to services like ExpressPCB where you can get three 2.5" x 3.8" double sided boards that are drilled and have plated through holes for $51, thats $17 per board.
Your advantage would be the single quantity and slightly larger size, but losing the second side and needing to do your own drilling is a big drawback.
Just my $0.02
C.W.
Yea, I imagine it is a tough sale, but perhaps there are folks that don't need three double sided boards with plated through holes, and saving $30 to $40 bucks might be more important to them, such as students and the younger people in the forum.
I don't know if you noticed, but I started a new thread in the Propeller forum, pertaining to an EAGLE library for the Propeller DIP Plus Kit. At this very moment, with the exception of writing this response, I am creating a schematic and board with that library, and it will be a one-sided board. This board and schematic will be based upon a Propeller Chip updater or "stache" that I made a while back for updating the EEPROMs of my machines. That same project was built with a Propeller DIP Plus Kit and it is sealed in a nice neat project box from RS. On the inside of the box, there is nothing fancy to see, but it works. This type of service would be perfect for that kind of project, where you only need one copy, and don't mind drilling a few holes. I just wish I could have all the time back that I spent wiring that thing up, because I would have gladly spent $10 bucks for a small one sided board, in that case. When I get finished with this design, I am going to expose a PCB, etch it, and plate it, and perhaps I will post photos.
Bruce
http://oshpark.com/
For example, a 2 square inch board would cost $10 and you’d get three copies of your board.
You can order as many copies as you want, as long as they’re in multiples of three.
Orders are generally 2 to 3 times a week, and have a turn time of about 12 days.
That sounds like a pretty darn good deal.
Bruce
http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html
I've used them for three sets of boards, without any problems. They got them made in about three working days, and postage to the UK took about another 10 days or so.
LOL.... Okay, then a Sharpie and ferric chloride it is
Good luck doing a board like this with a Sharpie and Ferric Chloride
Bruce
I just started a project called Maker-Source.Com (Not up yet but will be by the end of the week), to offer services to creative people who lack knowledge or equipment to complete their projects. This came out of my experience with friends and acquaintances who were themselves creative people but often lacked either some specific knowledge or equipment to complete a project they had in mind. In most cases it was either someone needing a small part milled or a simple circuit designed to operate animated artwork, or control a model railroad or slot car layout, or take photos from an RC plane or Heli. In some cases it was someone needing services I couldn't provide such as print art, logo design, etc. However, my artist friends are good at that so I played match maker when I couldn't provide the needed service. I have been helping friends and friends of friends for decades and then just a few weeks ago it struck me. With DIY and creativity bombing again, I could charge a reasonable fee for these services and take a small cut for matching someone with a need with someone with the ability.
I think your service is reasonable but your target market is wrong. The people here have the ability to produce PCBs in one off quantities using various methods. To someone like an artist who only knows she wants this piece to move that way and that piece to move this way and have some lights flash in a particular pattern, your services would be a very reasonable price. Now, at the moment I don't have a ton of people knocking down my door for these services. But I am looking for others who can provide such services as I begin to promote the Maker-Source.Com site. The site's motto is: "Helping Creative People Create!" and is simply meant to provide service to fill the gap in someone's abilities to produce their project. Each project will be negotiated at the time of service request and bartering is allowed. So their are no set prices. It is not a bidding site though that aspect may have some potential. For the moment I think do to the nature of the work and the clientele, a bidding process would not serve the target market well.
If anyone here is interested in doing such one off work, or micro production runs for such projects I'd love to have you contact me with a list of your abilities, equipment, and talents.
ITead on the other hand gives you 10 copys of a 2 layer 5cmx5cm board which is close to 4 inches for 9.90 if im reading everything correct, although I cant tell if solder mask and silck screen is included, it would appear so though.
Bruce may have a good deal if he was charging 20 bucks for a big board if you need something thats 20 sqaure inches its going to cost alot through any PCB house. Lets say you were designing a through hole z80 system, im pretty sure if you wanted a one of paying bruce 20 bucks and drilling some holes would save oodles
http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html
(I only have a Dremel for that use at the moment, and no, I don't have a rig for it. )
Even with the drill we used back when I was studying, the drilling was a bit of a pain.
(Pedal-operated model with a drill that punched up from below and a sighting plate that was swung down over the PCB)
Even though drilling your own holes can be a pain, there can also be pain and headaches associated with exposing, developing, and etching a PCB. For those people that don't mind buying extra boards, when they only need one, I say more power to them. They can spend their money any way they want. As for me, I intend to conquer the process completely, and make my own.
Bruce
EDIT: However, there is no way that I am ever going to strive for the ENIG process. I will leave that for the experts
A co-worker of mine has sworn-off ITead because they don't test them, and he's had an average of 30% failures in orders he's placed. OSHPark appear to all be perfect. Also, keep in mind OSHPark is $5/square inch for three copies. So, 3 boards for $10.
Bruce
ITead does test their boards, they mark the ones that have passed. All the marked boards I have used have been OK.
So are all boards ordered "passed" or if you order 10 you might get 6 "passed" and 4 "not-passed"?
C.W.
Actually, it isn't ITead who make and test the boards, it's their supplier.